Bessie Ann Hill Pitzer King

BIO: BESSIE ANN HILL:
     Was the second child and second daughter of Odus (Windy) Grant Hill and Flora Ann (Brooks) Hill was born August 03, 1900, on a farm south of Nickerson, Kansas. As a young girl she worked in homes south of Nickerson, Kansas.  She worked for two summers for Bertha (Mrs. Charles) Trostle.  While working there she met James Paul Pitzer.  The story related by Bessie is, her sister Ethel and her were in Nickerson one Saturday evening when she met Paul. It seems Ethel and Paul were acquitted from the Brethren College in McPherson, Kansas were Paul was going to school.  Paul was working the summer for Frank McGonigle a farmer west of Nickerson, Kansas. Frank McGonigle had close ties with the Church of the Brethren an had young College boys out to work for him in the summers. Bessie said Paul had came to Nickerson that Saturday evening to see Ethel, but that she (Bessie) ended up with him.  On December 21, 1919, she married James Paul Pitzer.  They were married in the new farm home the Trostle's were building.  The house was in the process of being built at the time and was far from completion. 

   As of 1990 a Grandson of Charles and Bertha Trostle lives in this house.  Ethel Hill was Bessie's attendant at the wedding. 

   Bessie and Paul lived on Paul's parents farm east of Cordell, Oklahoma.  This is where their first two children were born, Lorene and Kenneth.  From there they moved to Pentaluma California, where Edith was born.  In Modesto, California where they next lived Pearl, Emma and John was all born.  They moved back to the Coffeyville, Kansas area sometime before 1930, when James, Clarence and Phillip were born.

     On October 16, 1991 Kenneth and Phillip took a trip to visit places in Oklahoma and Kansas where Bessie and Paul lived when they returned from California.   First they visited the church their Grandfather John Riley Pitzer organized and built in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  Two houses north of this church was the home of their Grandparents John Riley and Elizabeth Annie (Bower) Pitzer.  It was in this house that Bessie gave birth to James David Pitzer.  Next to the Grandparents home, north, was Minnie Maye (Pitzer) Kerr's home. Minnie Maye's house is where Bessie gave birth to Phillip Harrison Pitzer.

     We drove by the Wann, Oklahoma, High School where Kenneth and his sisters attended, when they lived three miles south of Wann.  The family lived there from September 1930 till September 1931.  All that was there in 1991, was an old metal barn.  Kenneth told how the original wooden barn was struck by lighting and burned down, when they lived there.  Paul was in the barn when the lighting struck and the fire started.  Many neighbors came to help put out the fire, but it was to late.  We next visited a farm stead seven miles south of the Kansas, Oklahoma line on Highway 169.  The Highway was over a mile west when the Pitzer's lived there.  The home site was on a little hill and only a barn was there when they visited.  Kenneth said he and his brothers and sisters attended school in Lenapah, Oklahoma, while living here.  Bessie and Paul lived here two years from September 1931 till October 1933.  As Kenneth remembers it, the Pitzer's moved again to a place east of Wann for only a couple of months, October and November 1933.  Ken and Phil did not have time to locate this place.  The next farm site where the Pitzer's lived was one and one half miles north and one mile east of Dearing, Kansas. Dearing is just northwest of Coffeyville, Kansas.  This farm site had more wooded area then the others. The house was not visible from the road, but they found a drive and was able to locate and take a picture of the old home.  Bessie and Paul lived here from November 1933 till September 1935.  The next farm was four miles north and one and one half miles east of Dearing, Kansas.  Here they farmed one half section of land.  This one half section has a road on all four sides.  The country school where Kenneth graduated the eight grade was on the corner, across the road on the south end of this half section.  The school building has been converted into a home as of 10/1991.  On the south end of this place is some larger sandstone boulders, which still had Kenneth's initials carved into them.  Kenneth told of many happy, and some not so happy, times that were had here and at the other places visited that day.  In May of 1938 while on a cattle buying trip, Paul disappeared and was never heard from since.  Bessie and Paul were living on a rented farm north of Coffeyville, Kansas. Their mailing address was out of Liberty, Kansas.  Paul had borrowed  approximately eight hundred dollars from the government to buy cattle in Bartlesville, Oklahoma area.  The last relative to see Paul alive was his sister Minnie Maye (Pitzer) Kerr who was living in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  Paul left Minnie Maye's house in a Taxi headed for the bus depot, where he was to take a bus back to Coffeyville, Kansas and his home.  He had not purchased any cattle and as far as was known he still had the eight hundred dollars on him.  It is the opinion of his family that he met with foul play. Bessie and her three  youngest boys moved in with her parents on the Hill farm southwest of Nickerson, Kansas.  The other six children went to live with relatives in the Hill and Pitzer families.  This would have been in the fall of 1938.  After a year Bessie went on County Welfare for financial support and moved into a home at what was called 1000 East First Street, Hutchinson, Kansas.      I say was called 1000 East First, because it was not on First Street, but on Clay Street and it faced East not South as it should if it was on First Street.  I suspect when we moved to this place it had just recently been taken into the city of Hutchinson city limits and had never had an address before.  We probably ask some one in the city offices what address we should use and that they said 1000 East First. It was several acres, I guess about 10, with several out buildings.  Of course there was no running water, or indoors plumping.  The old house had no insulation and only two bedrooms, one closet a living room and dinning room.  There had been added on a lean-to kitchen which it to had been added onto to make it larger. All of Bessie's children moved in with her except the oldest two, Lorene had gotten married and Kenneth having graduated from High School, joined the CCC's government boys organization.  The seven others made this there home till one by one each married and left. On this place they raised chickens, goats, rabbits, pigeons and had a donkey at one time.  A neighbor man keep his milking cow stabled there and they got some of it's milk.  This place was located next to the railroad tracks and one time a small pig was found that was thought to have gotten out of a load of pigs from a rail car.    They feed the pig for a while, but Bessie's brother's finished fattening it up and had it butchered for her.  They raised a large garden and Bessie would can fruits and vegetables for the winter eating. Times were hard for Bessie, raising seven children alone.  But, as each child was old enough he or she found some kind of work to help out on the family finances.  To supplement there Welfare income, Bessie took in laundries, worked at others homes as a maid, and in neighborhood laundries. Bessie taught the children good basic habits, to be self-sufficient, and the rewards of hard work.  Folks have said a lot about the poor Pitzer kids, but none can say they are afraid of hard work.  By the time the children were either married or on their own, Bessie was off of Welfare and had a job as a maid in the new Baker Hotel, (1954) that had just been built in Hutchinson. 

After the last child was married, (1955) Bessie obtained a legal divorce from Paul Pitzer and married Arvil King, 1957, a widower with one son.  They lived for a while in his home on North Forrest Street in Hutchinson.  Later they purchased a home at 1400 East 23rd in Hutchinson where they lived until poor health forced both of them into the Golden Plains Nursing Home, Hutchinson, Kansas. While living at 1400 East 23rd in 1968 one evening Bessie had all nine of her children together at the same time.  This is the one and only time all nine children were together after their father disappeared.  Pictures were taken of all and their spouses. Many  happy reunions and family get-to-gathers were had by Bessie, Arvil and all her children, Grandchildren, and Great Grandchildren plus relatives at this home with the large Family Room and warming fireplace.  Bessie and Arvil always kept a roaring fire going when the weather was the least bit cool. Bessie kept two sewing machines  for years, one in the basement and another on the south sun porch Arvil had built.  She made quilts for all her children and most of the Grand kids.  In the winter months she usually had the quilting frames set up in the Family Room in front of the fireplace. The home at 1400 East 23rd was sold after Bessie and Arvil moved to nursing home.  The people who bought it turned it into a Flower shop, using much of the old homes charm. As of this writing, 1991 it still brings back many memories when ever I visit the Flower shop. Bessie Ann (Hill) Pitzer passed away Monday March 25, 1991 while resident at the Hutchinson Good Samaritan Center, Hutchinson, Kansas. Bessie is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery (now Penwell-Gable Cem.) west of Hutchinson, where so many of her other relatives are.  Her plot is just across the little sidewalk from her brother Ralph Hill his wife Katie.